Abstract:
Fall and winter bird communities are dynamic and exposed to a variety of pressures. Weather patterns and species composition change rapidly throughout fall migration. Food becomes scarce in winter resulting in varying levels of inter-specific and intra-specific competition and cooperation through mixed-species foraging flocks. I wanted to understand the factors influencing community composition, such as time of year, temperature, and wind speed, as well as how the community changed throughout both seasons. I performed point-count surveys and performed a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to determine correlations between species composition and weather and temporal variables. I also calculated species richness and relative abundances for each month during the study. Relative abundance results indicate that Cooper Farm experiences a greater amount of species turnover than Ginn Woods does over the course of fall and winter. PCAs sorted Cooper Farm point count locations based on migratory species and then again on the basis of prairie species. Point count locations were sorted based on edge tolerance of species, migrating species, and foraging height of species in Ginn Woods. PCAs also indicate that community composition is most strongly correlated to date and temperature.
